(Black Blade #2)by Jennifer EstepPublisher: KensingtonRelease Date: October 27th 2015Genre: Young Adult, Urban Fantasy, Romance, Paranormal, Magic, SupernaturalSomething Wicked This Way Comes...As a thief, I stick to the shadows as much as possible. But when the head of the Sinclair Family picks me to compete in the Tournament of Blades, there's no escaping the spotlight—or the danger.Even though he's my competition, Devon Sinclair thinks I have the best shot at winning what's supposed to be a friendly contest. But when the competitors start having mysterious "accidents," it looks like someone will do anything to win—no matter who they hurt.As if I didn't have enough to worry about, mobster Victor Draconi is plotting against Devon and the rest of my friends, and someone's going around Cloudburst Falls murdering monsters. One thing's for sure. Sometimes, humans can be more monstrous than anything else...

“What do you normally do about tree trolls who throw things at tourists?” I asked.

Devon
shrugged. “Usually, we don’t have to do all that much. Most of the
trolls stay in the trees in their designated habitat areas in and around
the Midway. Whenever they start making pests of themselves, we send
some guards over to tell them to either cut it out or move back up the
mountain where they can do whatever they want.”

I nodded. Like
most monsters, tree trolls could understand human speech, even if
mortals and magicks couldn’t really understand them all that well.

“Usually,
that’s the end of it, but this guy doesn’t seem to want to leave,”
Devon said. “He’s still here, despite the guards that I sent over
yesterday. And he’s not the only one. I’ve heard rumors that all the
other Families are having similar problems with trolls right now. Seems
like something has them spooked and coming down off the mountain in
record numbers.”

As soon as Devon said the word leave, the tree
troll started jumping up and down even faster than before, his
cheep-cheep-cheeps growing louder and louder. The high-pitched shrieks
stabbed into my brain, making me grateful that enhanced hearing wasn’t
one of my Talents. The creature was plenty loud enough already without
the sound being magically amplified.

All around us, the tourists
stopped slurping down their jumbo sodas, noshing on their giants wads
of cotton candy, and snapping photos of the bubbling fountain in the
middle of the square. They all turned to stare in our direction, curious
about the commotion. I dropped my head and slid behind Felix, trying to
blend into the background as much as possible. As a thief, I’d never
liked being the center of attention. Kind of hard to pick someone’s
pocket or snag a watch off her wrist when she was looking straight at
you. I might not be here to steal anything, but old habits die hard.

Devon looked at me. “Do you think you can use your soulsight to see what he’s so upset about?”

“Yeah,” Felix chimed in. “Let the great Lila Merriweather do her magic mojo. She is the monster whisperer, after all.”

I reached over and punched him in the shoulder.

“Hey!” Felix said, rubbing his arm. “What was that for?”

“I am not a monster whisperer.”

He rolled his eyes. “Did you or did you not feed three guys to a lochness a few weeks ago?”

I
winced. That was exactly what I’d done. I didn’t even feel bad about
it, since the guys had been trying to kill Devon and me at the time. But
I’d always been secretive about my magic, my Talents, and all the
things that my mom had taught me about how to deal with monsters. I’d
had to be, since I wanted to keep my magic firmly inside my own body and
not have someone rip it out of me to use himself. So I wasn’t used to
Felix or anyone else joking about it so openly. Every time he or Devon
made a comment about my magic, I always looked around, wondering who
might have overhead and what they might to do to me in order to get my
Talents.

Jennifer Estep is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of urban fantasy and paranormal romance.Her Elemental Assassin series follows the life and times of Gin “the Spider” Blanco, a barbecue restaurant owner who also happens to be an assassin with magical control over the elements of Ice and Stone.The Mythos Academy series focuses on Gwen Frost, a 17-year-old Gypsy girl who has the ability to know an object’s history just by touching it. She studies at Mythos Academy, a school for the descendants of ancient warriors.Her Bigtime paranormal romance books feature sexy superheroes, evil ubervillains, and smart, sassy gals looking for love.Estep’s new Black Blade series is about 17-year-old thief Lila Merriweather, who has a Talent for sight, along with the ability to take magic others used against her to boost her own powers. She tries not to get involved with the Families who control much of the town, but ends up in the middle of a potential turf war.

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